Knicks' close losses give D'Antoni hope
Photo credit: AP | New York Knicks head coach Mike D'Antoni directs his team against the Denver Nuggets in the first quarter. (November 27, 2009)
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Nov. 27: Nuggets 128, Knicks 125
DENVER - Chauncey Billups shook his head as he thought about the battle the Nuggets were in before they beat the Knicks Friday night. He considered how much the 3-13 record misrepresented the team that had just taken Denver to the final buzzer in a 128-125 final.
"Quite frankly, if their scorers had played that well in those first 15 games," Billups said, "they would probably be well over .500."
But at 10 games under before the first of December, it's already getting late for moral victories. So an overtime loss to the Celtics, a second-half comeback against the Lakers and a toe-to-toe shootout with the Nuggets in the span of a week mean nothing until they start registering wins.
And as Chris Duhon noted, with the upcoming schedule including games against the Magic (twice, including tonight at 6), the Suns and the Hawks, "we don't have it easy."
Mike D'Antoni will try to hold on to any shred of optimism he can squeeze from the loss in Denver, in which the offense finally got untracked with a season-best 48.9 percent shooting performance and 29 assists on 45 field goals.
"We can get better on this," D'Antoni said. "I know I've said that before, but if we can keep this intensity and competitiveness, they'll get more confident."
Confidence, more than anything fundamental, has been the major issue for this team. When shots don't drop, confidence does. Then that creeps into other aspects of the game until you have what exists in the troubled head of Duhon or the confused mind of Wilson Chandler.
"I've been through this before; you want to perform so bad that you screw it up," D'Antoni said. "That's where our mentality's been, and we've got to get over it."
Duhon had one of his better games with 12 points, six rebounds and not a single turnover in 37 minutes. What is more notable is that Duhon gritted through 20 minutes in the second half while playing on a very sore left ankle that he injured on the final play of the first half, when he stepped on Ty Lawson's foot on a last-second shot attempt.
Duhon had the ankle re-taped at halftime, and the pain went down as he got loose. But he said this after the game while sitting with the foot in a mop bucket of ice water.
The Knicks did not practice yesterday, so Duhon will have a day to see how the ankle responds and if it will have any impact on him for today's game against the Magic.
D'Antoni decided to lock into an eight-man rotation - rookies Toney Douglas and Jordan Hill did not get off the bench against Denver - and he might stretch it to nine against the Magic only if Eddy Curry is ready to play. Curry has missed two games after tweaking his left knee against the Lakers Tuesday night.
